The first thing you need to know is that I’m not the protagonist of this story. I was reborn as a side character. Best friend of the protagonist, if we’re being specific.
It’s a pretty high tier gig so far as side characters go, but then again, I suppose that’s a bit like bragging about being the prettiest bridesmaid. Or the coolest henchman.
Still, I’m not really one to complain, and generally speaking, the thought of sitting back and enjoying a nice round of harem hijinks from the sidelines sounded downright relaxing compared to the mindless drudgery of everyday life.
There’s only one problem. I know what world I’ve been isekai-ed into.
This is the world of Harem, Harem Oval Crisis, and Harem, Harem, Oval Crisis got cancelled after the first couple of chapters.
It wasn’t a graceful cancellation either. In fact, I would go so far as to say it was a bit infamous. Upon hearing the news, the author peaced out in glorious fashion by ending the series with the sudden and inexplicably gruesome murder of, you guessed it, yours truly.
Side Character Best Friend extraordinaire.
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It was gross, disquieting, and totally off tone. So of course the internet went a little crazy with it.
It became a meme of sorts, where the fanbase started this injoke where they took the murder totally seriously and began theorizing about how the series had been foreshadowing it from the very start, and how the whole thing was an elaborate setup for a solvable murder mystery.
There was post after post of how the ligature marks around Side Character’s neck were consistent with the width of the gag fluffy pink bondage ropes from Chapter 3, or how the positioning of my eventual corpse was reminiscent of a doodle spotted in margins of the workbook in the study session from Chapter 5.
It was...amazing.
I was hyucking it up with the rest of them. Until now, for obvious reasons. Let me assure you, it’s a lot less funny standing in the shoes of my soon to be murdered self.
But it’s not like I’m about to give up. I got options, I’m pretty sure. At least one solid hint towards my possible salvation.
Cause you see, something else happened in that infamous last chapter. Right before my murder it was there.
The final confession.
That troll of an author obscured the heroine’s face, of course, but that doesn’t matter for my purposes.
The path forward is clear. Stop that final confession, disrupt that timeline, and I prevent my eventual gruesome murder. Simple right?
All I have to do to ensure my continued life is to make sure that confession never happens. I gotta kill every flag, murder every canary in every proverbial coal mine, and make sure that these silly saccharine harem antics continue forever.
Cause otherwise…
I’ll die.